Merry Christmas from Singapore!

We were really hoping that we wouldn't still be here for Christmas instead we should be sipping cocktails on the beach in Thailand but as events turn out Blue Moon is still crippled and we're trying desperately to figure out how to fix her. We have a lot of mixed emotions at the moment, mostly missing family and friends who we couldn't be with for the festive season and also the frustration of being unable to move on with the situation we're in here. We've been working day and night but two steps forward always seem to result in four backwards.

However, today has been a welcome break as we headed into the city this afternoon to have some time off and enjoy Singapore's beautiful Christmas lights. At 6pm we visited the 'Cathedral of The Good Shepard' for evening mass where we sang Christmas carols alongside hundreds of local people in the beautiful historical building. The streets and malls were packed with shoppers making the most of the Christmas sales as most of the population are Chinese and Indian and don't celebrate the holiday as we do - This means everything runs as if it were a normal day and as usual the consumers are definitely consuming as if there were no tomorrow!!

After a quick stop into and English style pub for a Christmas drink we headed to the Carrefour supermarket to pick up some Sushi take-away and back to the boat for a not so traditional dinner. We've found that being away from home on Christmas day makes it impossible to re-create that traditional feeling especially coming from two different countries and backgrounds, it's just not the same no matter how hard we try so we've decided - 'When in Rome do as the Romans do'- Last year we celebrated with an Aussie BBQ in Sydney, in 2006 it was a Colombian fiesta in Cartagena, we find it makes us feel a little less home sick and we get to enjoy some local treats in very different settings...so sushi in Singapore - Why not?

We'd just like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and hope that wherever you are and whatever your doing your having a great time. Our thoughts are with you throughout the miles that separate us and we hope all your Christmas wishes come true!!

Patience and sanity test - Not quite a Johna story but getting close!

Ahoy to all!

Quick update on our status in Singapore!

Without mechanical knowledge previously tested or "required to date" - we have replaced, refitted, removed and just about re greased everything attached to the propeller shaft all the way back to the engine... On the positive- we now have knowledge about bearings, sheaves, splines and of course the various composites making them up which I must add a non-industry person should never be exposed to. This intimate experience also includes various installation techniques of said bearing, not limited to but definitely including: pressing, heating, pounding, tapping and just pure hard driving never before nor ever "again" to be attempted by the himself. The good news is the entire drive line, v-drive, transmission, hydraulic pluming, water system and not to mention the mounting, adjusting, removing to adjust again.

This of course just helps us get to the really fun part...the ever simple "ALIGNMENT PROCESS" HA! - Well our heads are still spinning over counting the planetary gears - no kidding - We have removed sun gears, moon gears and just plain old planetary gears - WOW! Like celestial navigation all over... It is just that the universe doesn't make crunching/rattling noises while they ellipse - must of had a good mechanic - (note to self: need to get him on the problem)
After real effort, time, money and knuckle cracking it has been concluded that there is a real problem and it required additional professionals.... Wow! #*@#%!!! - OR- SON OF A GUN!

Not a very exciting time on old Bluemoon... Christmas keeps screaming closer as if the pages on calendar were the odometer on a formula race car... The ripping of the pages just a constant reminder of friends and family afar and dollars tearing from our bank account.... We believe there is an end in sight - just holding onto hope and a constant positive outlook.

Just to top off the situation the immigration department will not issue us another extension without a written estimate of repair time and this needs to be from a locally recognized marine yard... Yippee! This was great news as we wasted 3 hrs getting out to their office only to be kicked back. Fun being on a boat sometimes - Arrive by bus or plane get 90-days - Arrive by boat get 14-days - get a one time 30 day renewal and then put up $3000 or who knows what..... So we have to hurry to get a letter explaining our problem on local letterhead...

SO - Now we need to return to the Raffles Marina Yard - not the people we ever wanted to deal with again- let alone ask for assistance... But we need to set the drive train correctly to insure the costly yard repairs were done correctly before departing... What luck!! All else is great! No cruisers in sight and the locals are to busy trying to out purchase the entire world for x-mas, if you think the economy is in trouble - Singapore will keep it rolling.

Enough for now! We will keep fighting the fight.

Transmission Re-build!

After replacing pretty much all the bearings in the v-drive over the last few days and then reinstalling it back into the boat we've come to the conclusion that this was not the only cause of the vibrations. Unfortunately, the damage extended further and has affected the transmission as well. This has proved extremely frustrating as we were up until 1 am this morning putting everything back with the hope that all would be perfect but no such luck. With much head scratching and our ears to the floor trying to locate the source of a loud knocking sound Jimmy and Roger (our Singaporean engine guru) finally came to the conclusion that it 'has' to be the bearing in the transmission.

So today it was back to the grind stone and the slow process of removing the whole gear box, taking it up to Roger's work area and breaking it down. The bearing definitely needs replacing so that's good news and the clutch plates look perfect. Unfortunately it's a holiday here on Monday so we have to wait until Tuesday before we can get the new bearing (if I ever have to see another bearing after this it will be too soon) but in the mean time we can clean everything up including the inch of grease that covers every surface in the boat... and hopefully get a full nights sleep!

Roger has been fantastic and without him we'd be paying a fortune to have a mechanic come down and do the work for us. He even took us out for some traditional Chinese food last night of chicken rice which is really popular here in Singapore...all tasted great but I had to draw the line after a mouth full of boiled chicken feet skin...enough of a cultural experience for one night and I wouldn't recommend it!!

Back in the water but not yet back on track.

Current Position: Raffles Marina, Singapore.

On Tuesday afternoon we were finally dropped back in the water after eight days on the hard. The new bronze strut has been fiber glassed into the hull and a brand new propeller shaft is back in place. This should have been a very happy moment for us but after a quick test run we noticed a lot of vibration on the new shaft and v-drive unit inside the boat. We drove Blue Moon back into the marina and started the process of figuring out what could be causing this as the marina manager assured us that the new strut is perfectly aligned. Wednesday morning we started the process of breaking down the V-drive unit to replace some of the bearings that could be causing the problem, since then Jimmy's been breaking his back carrying the unit back and forth from the boat but as of yet the problem isn't solved.

After mentioning the problem to the yard we've heard nothing from them and as far as we can tell now that we've paid them for the work they want nothing more to do with us...no follow through or interest in why there is a problem, not even a friendly concern!! Luckily we have a saving grace in the form of Roger, an older Singaporean man who knows everything there is to know about marine engines. Jimmy happened to meet him in passing and asked a few questions which resulted in a great teacher/student relationship, he's even driven Jimmy all over Singapore looking for the new bearings. We're pretty confident that with Rogers knowledge we'll finally get to the bottom of the problem and be out of here in time to get to Phuket by Christmas...Fingers crossed!

Happy Thanks Giving.

It's a day late but officially Thanks giving in the States as we're a day ahead time wise here in Singapore...so I hope everyone is having a great day. The tradition for Jimmy is to have a Turkey dinner a lot like we have in England for Christmas but finding a turkey here was pretty much impossible unless we wanted to pay $60. Instead we had another American style meal of Cheeseburgers and Corn on the cob...not quite the same but still tasted great!

We're still on the hard and waiting for the strut to be fixed, after being hauled on Monday other than twenty minutes of grinding nothing has been done. Patience is a virtue and we are being tested to our limits at the moment. The good thing is that we've taken the time to do work of our own checking all the rigging and running into the city to visit Jimmy's favorite stores at the Sim Lim tower (every electrical component you can think of is sold here) to get pieces and parts to improve the electronics on the boat.

Being on the hard is never fun as we can't use the toilet and the heat is unbearable especially at night when were trying to sleep, so we're very thankful for the Pool and air conditioned lounge which gives us a break. How long will we be out for?...to be honest we have no idea and no one is giving us any hints, if they work they work but we're not holding our breath!

High and Dry!

Current Location: Raffles yard, Singapore.

As of 10am yesterday morning Blue Moon is now High and Dry in the haul out yard in Raffles Marina. With the use of our dinghy and the help of marina staff we were able to propel ourselves around to the travel lift and within a half an hour we were lock and chocked on the hard stand. Amazingly the bottom paint from Panama is holding up pretty well so no need to re-paint this time just replace the strut and shaft and away we go. We're really impressed with the work the yard does from looking around at other yachts being repaired so we're extremely confident that this is one of the best yards for getting our work done. Yesterday they ground out the base of the old strut and today they should start the process of putting in the new one. It's a little complicated as the strut has to be lined up perfectly to prevent any unwanted vibrations in the propeller shaft but we'll leave that to the professionals and fingers crossed it will last for a long time to come!

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Trapped in Raffles!

Position: Raffles Marina, Singapore.

Well we're still here waiting to get hauled out in the yard to fix our strut... It's been over three weeks and we feel like we're fighting an up hill battle with the yard, they keep putting us off due to higher paying jobs being more important than us even though they arrived later!!...and yes they did tell us this themselves. In five years of cruising this is probably the worse we've been treated in a place we least expected it.

We're constantly being promised that we'll be the next boat out and yet we've watched a constant stream of yachts going up and down! When we question them on the day we're supposed to get hauled they just tell us to come back in a couple of days time and they'll see what they can do...amazing! If we'd have known it would have taken this long we could have done some inland travel or even flown home for a visit, as it is we're constantly worried about time and money as this is not a cheap Marina. The yard manager also told us to have the new Strut Fed Exed in as soon as possible from the states as this will speed things up and we'll be out as soon as the package arrives...it arrived three weeks ago and here we are still waiting.

On a good note we really can't complain about the marina itself, every morning we have the Singapore straits newspaper delivered to the boat, The pool and gym are fantastic and there's even a bowling alley. To get to the city we take a free shuttle bus to the MRT (mass rapid transport) station which is a train and underground system that takes us anywhere we want to go downtown. The food is the best we've had in a very long time and if you buy it in the mall's food courts it's also really cheap....with a mix of Chinese, Indian and Malaysian it tastes so good! So here's to getting stuck in yet another Paradise.

Stuck in Sinagapore!

Current Position - Raffles Marina: North 01*20'555 East 103*38'017

This week has been extremely exciting but not in a good way...we had a great time anchored in Danga Bay in Malaysia and caught the bus over to Singapore for a couple of days exploring and sightseeing. It's a great way to see Singapore without checking the boat in and Out and having to stay in an expensive marina. The Malaysians are really friendly and with the combinations of many cultures including Indians and Chinese it's a really diverse place to hang out and more importantly eat out! So after a week of acclimatizing to a new country we decided to get underway and start heading up the Melacca Straights and the west coast of Malaysia. All went smoothly and we were making good time motoring along until all of a sudden we heard a loud crunching sound from under the boat, every sailors nightmare and panic shot through us both as all we could think was 'the strut'!

We'd noticed in Australia that the bronze strut holding the propeller shaft in place had become weakened after we got a rope caught around it in Brisbane. Jimmy had reinforced it and was fairly confident that it would out until we could get ourselves to Lankawi in northern Malaysia where we'd find a cheaper
haul out yard to get the work done.

Obviously our luck had run out as Jimmy jumped into the water and confirmed our worst fears...the strut was hanging upside down from the shaft and no longer attached to the hull so we were without an engine. We quickly made the decision to turn around and try to sail the 15 miles back to Singapore, luckily we were traveling in company with Ingvil and Gunnar on s/v Helen Kate so we called them on the radio and they agreed to turn around to accompany us back. By 4pm the wind started to die off making it impossible to sail and so we threw a tow line across to Helen Kate and they pulled us the last nine miles back to a small island on the Malaysian side facing Raffles Marina on the western tip of Singapore.

We anchored up and dropped the dingy to use as an emergency engine if necessary and were happy to get some sleep. At 4 am we were hit with a huge lightning storm with winds blowing up to 40 knots and heavy rain. If the anchor didn't hold we would have been in serious trouble without an engine we wouldn't have been able to stop ourselves dragging into the rocks of Singapore! Luckily the anchor did hold and at first light we made the decision to get Blue Moon into a Marina as soon as possible.

Raffles was the only marina close enough with a haul out yard but of course we had to check out of Malaysia before we could enter Singapore waters. The check out process took all morning but with the help of the Puteri Bay marina it all went smoothly and by mid day we had the dingy strapped to the side of the boat and used the outboard engine to propel us the three miles across to Raffles without a hitch. We said a sad fair well and big thank you to Ingvil and Gunnar as they returned on their trip up the coast and we tied up to the dock to start the waiting process for being hauled out!

Luckily we'd already ordered a new strut to be cast back in the states so it was sitting on the shelf waiting and with the help of Jimmy's dad it arrived today by Fed Ex. The problem is that there's a long waiting list for yard and we're definitely not at the front of it. I can't complain though as there's a great swimming pool to hang out in and easy access to the city so we'll be seeing a lot more of Singapore!

Checking in to Malaysia!

Current Position in Danga Bay Malaysia: North 01*28'272 East 103*43'442

After a successful trip up to Batam Island we pulled into Nongsa Point Marina on the north western tip to enjoy once again being tied up to a dock. This time however instead of the docks falling apart it was a first class resort with a beautiful marina and most importantly a huge swimming pool. We had little time to enjoy it though as we were there to get fuel, water and groceries and then check out of Indonesia. It was sad to be leaving a country we've enjoyed so much but we were also excited to be going somewhere completely new. The formalities went extremely smoothly, very different from our check-in in Kupang, and everyone seemed honestly sad to see us go!

At 8:30 yesterday morning after the final clearance from customs was given we headed out of Batam and into the crazy Singapore Straights! This is one of the busiest shipping areas in the world and we had to sail from South to North across the main shipping lanes running from East to West. Imagine playing the game frogger but instead of logs they were giant tankers and instead of a frog it was Blue Moon. We had to pick a time with the biggest gap between ships and just push as hard as we could to the other side without getting run down. It would be impossible for the ships to stop as they all run at 12 minute intervals and if one slows down there would be some major accidents. So we pushed our way across without any hiccups and were very happy to slow the engine down and just enjoy the sights and sounds of the Singapore skyline. There was one small incident, however, when we decided to take a short cut through some islands on the Singapore side and were approached by the coast guard who asked us to move as quickly as possible out of the live firing range and did we check our charts you stupid people because we could very easily have be hit!...better navigation next time!!

Our final destination was Tanjung Puteri on the Malaysian side of Western Singapore, there's a relatively narrow channel that runs between Malaysia and Singapore which is joined at the top by a Causeway and we headed up the western side to anchor off a newly developed marina which was supposed to be finished by next month. On arrival we realized that the project was way behind schedule and so we had to anchor for the night in a muddy work site! This obviously wasn't the place to be so this morning we picked up anchor and carried on up the channel to where we are now in Danga Bay. This is a much nicer anchorage in a wide bay with good holding and forest on one side and the town of Jahor Baru on the other. We were met this morning by the supervisor of the unfinished marina who took us to complete our clearance into Malaysia and even gave us a free tour of the area. So now we are now officially checked into Malaysia for no cost at all and a great start to a new country!

Underway from Kumai to Batam...just crossed the equator back into the Northern Hemisphere!

Current Position: North 00*13'547 East 105*11'643

Sorry for the wait but for some reason I've been really slow at doing any up dates lately, it could be because of the intense heat that we're getting at the moment which makes sitting down at the computer dripping in sweat a pretty uncomfortable experience - but here goes...

Our trip up the river to visit the Orangutans in Tanjung Putting national Park was once again one of the best experiences I've ever had. We stayed on a large 'Klotok' (wooden river boat) along with Ingvil & Gunnar off s/v Helen Kate - Astrid, Jasper and their 2 year old son Marijn off s/v Antares - and Pete & Cathy off s/v Wave runner. It was a fantastic two day trip and we couldn't have asked for more, the Orangutans are absolutely beautiful and we were lucky enough to see many of them at all three camps...I won't write any more about it here but keep an eye out on the main blog page and I'll give you all the juicy details!

For now though we are underway and have been for five days from Kumai to Batam island which is just 20 miles south of Singapore. Batam will be our final stop in Indonesia where we'll catch a ferry over to Singapore for the day and then check out and head on to Malaysia. This trip has been extremely frustrating so far as our wind died out after the first 24 hours and so we've been motoring a lot only turning the engine off when we get hit by a thunder storm which brings way too much wind and plenty of rain! The rest of the time the boat is like an oven reaching up to 37*C and the seas are flat calm like a mirror... we found that pegging up towels and sarongs around the cockpit to block out the sun drops the temperature just enough to be bearable. Our usual cooling off system of dumping a bucket full of sea water over our heads is also useless as the water temperature here is about the same as our bodies so we just get wet!!

The big excitement today however was that at 10 am we crossed back over the equator and are now in the Northern Hemisphere once again. It's a strange feeling as we both feel a lot closer to home all of a sudden like we've crossed an invisible barrier back into own part of the world. It certainly feels like we're at the equator though with eerily calm conditions much the same as we experienced over a year ago when we crossed into the southern hemisphere on our way from Panama to the Galapagos! There were very little celebrations this time though as it's just too hot and we're keeping a constant eye on the thunder storms around us just hoping they'll head the other way.

We have roughly 100 nautical miles to go to get to Batam and fingers crossed we should arrive at Nongsa Point Marina before dark tomorrow night...we're all very excited about the large swimming pool at the hotel so finally we can cool off!

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Kumai, Kalimantan - Southern Borneo!

Position at anchor up the Teluk Kumai River - South 02*44'267 East 111*44'037

After not such a nice two day motor sail from Bawean Island, due to being hit by a heavy storm and then loosing all our wind and having to motor for 24hrs, we arrived at the Kumai river in South Kalimantan last night just as night was falling. We had to navigate the last 10 miles up river in the dark which was a little worrying but not a problem with the help of our Radar and Way points. Kalimantan is the southern part of Borneo Island belonging to Indonesia and the reason we're here is to see the 'man of the forest' otherwise known as Orangutans! We're anchored off the town of Kumai and tomorrow we'll be picked up by a boat that will take us up river and deep into the jungle of Tanjung Putting National Park the home to the well known Camp Leaky. We'll be gone for two days and one night sleeping under the stars on the deck of the boat so I'll let you know how it goes as soon as we're back.

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Bawean Island.

Current position: South 05*43'940 East 112*40'143

After almost three weeks being tied up to the marina in Bali we finally slipped our mooring lines four days ago and are now anchored off the beautiful island of Bawean 240 nautical miles North West of Bali. I think we can honestly say that we really loved our time in Bali, for one thing it was great not having to worry about the boat dragging anchor or being boarded by 'uninvited guests' while we were ashore but also being just a 10 minute taxi ride from the town of Kuta made us feel like 'normal' land dwellers again. The Balinese people like all the indonesians we've met so far are extremely friendly and happy people and the feeling completely rubs of on you everywhere you go. We probably only cooked on the boat two times since we arrived in Bali as for less than $2 you can buy a great meal in just about any restaurant! The shopping is fantastic and us girls enjoyed many days out bargaining for ridiculously cheap prices in all the different streets packed with shops. Of course no hard days haggling was complete without a five dollar full hour of blissful Balinese massage...what more can you ask for? The guys were more than happy to spend the time sitting in a bar drinking huge bottles of Bintang beer for just $1.50 a pop...Perfect!

It wasn't all fun and games however as being in a marina always means more work, with endless amounts of water available on tap we have to make the most of it and scrub the whole boat down inside and out. Everything on board gets washed including carpets, cockpit cushions and every damp piece of clothing that hasn't seen the light of day for a while. It's basically a spring clean for the boat and a great feeling to reset everything until we hit a marina again...which may be some time.

So after delaying our departure again and again (it was hard to drag ourselves away) we finally headed out on friday and motor sailed up the coast to the North eastern tip of the island. We had to hug the coast extremely close to pick up the counter current running north and were at times only 20 ft away from the surf breaking on beach, it was a long day and we dropped anchor just before the sun set behind the huge volcano overlooking the bay. The next morning we headed out early and took 48 hours to get to where we are now on Bawean island. The passage was good and we were able to sail most of the way but we had to keep a really good look out for fishing boats and huge bamboo fish traps which line the waters as soon as you get close to any land which makes it hard to have a relaxing sail!

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Benoa Harbour, Bali

It's been a long time since we've been tied up to anything solid but now we are marina bums again... We arrived in Benoa Harbour on the south east coast of Bali three days ago and picked up the last available slip in Bali Marina. This is where I first sailed into Indonesia seven years ago as crew onboard an Australian yacht so it's great to back in familiar territory. Nothing has changed in the marina, the dock is still made of concrete and falling apart, water is a rare commodity and the dock master is constantly being pulled in four different directions! However, it is a great place, the staff are friendly, the restaurant serves great food and most importantly Blue Moon is safe and sound allowing us to leave her all day to go exploring.

Kuta Beach is a ten minute taxi ride and Bali's main tourist town, this place has changed a lot in seven years and is apsolutely crazy! We've been heading in everyday and discover something new everytime, Jimmy's says it's like Asia meets Miami meets New york city...a shoppers paradise where $10 can go a long way!! We plan to do some work on the boat over the next few days and then take some inland trips up to the mountain town of Ubud to see the rice paddy fields and check out some local art work.

Nusa Lembongan.

Current Position: South 08*40'740 East 115*26'315

Nusa Lembongan is a small island in the channel between Bali and Lombok, we arrived here two days ago and picked up a mooring belonging to a fisherman - no charge. This is another touristy place with huge floating platforms covered in water slides and cafe's for the big motor cats coming out of bali to moor up to during the day. The town along the waterfront doesn't appear to be too affected by the tourists except for the scattering of restaurants and quite fancy hotels. Everything here seems to focused on water sports and the guys were very happy to find three good surf brakes in paddling distance of the boats! Jimmy rented a long board for US$7 a day and every evening and morning along with Gunnar and Jasper head out to catch the high tide break. I've been really tempted to try but all the breaks are on shallow reef so I guess I'll keep watching for now!
The island is mostly populated by Hindu's so there are beautiful temples throughout the town and flowered offerings line the ground of the streets. The people as always are extremely friendly and on the whole it's a very relaxing little spot. Tomorrow we plan to head to Benoa Harbour on the south of Bali, just 15 miles away, to try and organize getting Blue Moon into the marina for a week or two in the hope of heading in land to explore for a few days!

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Teluk Kombal and Gilli Trawangan.

Current Position at Teluk Kombal: South 08*24'327 East 116*04'388

At the moment we're happily nestled on a mooring in a calm bay called Teluk Kombal on the North West side of Lombok island-East of Bali. We spent a few days moored off the outer of three small Gili islands called Gili Trawangan where we Tossed about on a mooring ball by rolling seas and heavy currents! There was a good reason we put up with this however, our Norwegian friends Ingvil and Gunnar off of s/v Helen Kate met on this very island seven years ago. It's been a huge mile stone in their circumnavigation to have been able to return here on their own sail boat and revisit where they first set eyes on each other and ultimately fell in Love!! I've never seen either of them so excited and so putting up with a little rolling was the least we could do. The island is pretty small and took us roughly an hour and a half to walk around but there is a lot crammed in to a small space. When Ingvil and Gunnar were first here it was known as the party island but they weren't prepared for how much more touristy it's become. The main street has many Restaurants, cafes and hostels all filled with white backpacker faces and offering western style food, swimming pools and Magic Mushrooms! There is still a lot of charm here and it doesn't yet seem ruined by tourism, there are no cars or trucks just horse drawn buggies and most of the roads are made of sand. The beaches are covered in small fishing boats and as soon as you walk off the main street you step into what could be any Indonesian village.

It was a little too rough during the day for us to spend any time on the boat so we would head ashore in the morning and return late at night. Anywhere else this may cause a problem but here we were more than happy to laze around on one of the fabulous beach huts propped up on pillows listening to music and ordering whenever we got hungry or thirsty...tough life! They even had little cabanas with TV's in where we could pick out a copied DVD and watch it as we ate...this is what we do in paradise?! We were just as happy to pick out a nice cafe and sit and people watch for the afternoon, we haven't seen this many tourists for a while and they're just so elaborately funny! The island has great charm and is really chilled out, it was a fantastic re-introduction into a more touristy area before we hit Bali and I'd definitely recommend it as a stop...just maybe at a less windy time! Most other cruisers stopped at the closest island to the main land 'Gilli Air' as it offers a lot more mooring balls in a calmer spot. From what we heard it was also very beautiful with more larger resorts and a quieter atmosphere.

Now we are enjoying a nice calm anchorage on Lombok for a couple of days, there's not much right here but yesterday we hired a 'Bemo' (mini van) to explore some of the island where we saw loads of friendly monkeys up in the Jungle and visited some weaving and pottery villages. The Landscape here is a lot more tropical and humid...today we even got our first rain fall for over four months. We ran around with buckets and a scrubbing brush trying to clean the boat down with it's first fresh water shower in a long time!

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Sumbawa Island.

Current Position: South 08*28'036 East 117*22'333
Anchored off the village of 'Badas'.

After leaving Komodo island we spent a couple of days relaxing on the smaller island of Banta where we snorkeled on some beautiful reef and had beach fires at night. We then took an over night sail along the north coast of Sumbawa island, roughly 100 miles, to the village of Badas on the north west coast. The scenery has changed dramatically, from very dry, brown hills to lush green mountains and the smell of flowers that seems to linger in the air. We anchored in a deep inlet used as a small port in 40ft of water. We're probably the only boats they've seen here in a while as the locals are surprised to three yachts anchored on their doorstep and as far as cruisers are concerned we're now 'off the beaten track'.

Roughly 10 mins drive from the anchorage is the large town of Sumbawa Besar which used to be the capital of Sumbawa. On Saturday we met a local guy called 'Borex' who knew a little English and rented a 'Bemo'(mini bus) for us for the day so we could explore the area. We visited the Sultans palace which is actually a building site as it's in the process of being reconstructed from scratch and then wandered the small shops in town. Most importantly we found a great little restaurant with probably the best food we've had in Indonesia so far, we ended up returning there many times and the guys loved endless supply of cold Bintang! Sumbawa is a great area and although it's a shame that very few tourists visit the island it's also kind of nice that we haven't seen another white face the whole time we've been here!

Today we plan to start moving west again but not sure as of yet where we'll end up...We're all still trying to decide whether to go north or south of Lombok Island so I guess we'll decide underway or maybe just find a nice little sandy island to spend the night!!

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Komodo Island!

Current Position: South 08*26'894 East 119*34'070
Anchored at Gili Lawa Laut island, North of Komodo island

Leaving Lehok grinno, in the Linta Strait between Padar island and Rinca we experienced huge currents heading from North to south, this was great when we were running with it at ten and a half knots but when we headed back north again it pretty much stopped us in our tracks! Luckily we could we had enough power in the engine to keep us moving at half a knot until the wind picked up just in time to get us out of the narrowest and strongest flow...we were like fish trying to swim up stream and getting no where very fast! Once the worst was behind us we had an enjoyable motor sail to Gili Lawa Laut island just north of the bigger Komodo Island. This has to be one of the most beautiful anchorages we've seen so far in Indonesia with water so clear we could see our anchor dug down in the sand, beautiful coral reef covered in fish and great hikes up the hills overlooking Komodo. This is a very popular spot for the big dive charter boats who spend four days here doing constant dive trips. We took Jimmy & Joern out to a huge rock about half a mile from the anchorage to do a dive, the rock is shaped like an underwater volcano and they were pleasantly surprised of the amount of fish and great visibility. We spent a relaxing night here but today we're heading about 15 miles further west to catch up with friends onboard s/v Antares and s/v Helen Kate.

MONDAY 25TH AUGUST
Anchored at Lehok Ginggo on Rinca Island
Position: South 08*42'210 East 119*39'460

Lehok Ginggo is a huge bay on the western coast of Rinca, surrounded with grass covered hills and lots of white sandy beaches, we anchored next to two small fishing boats off one of the beaches in the South East corner in about 30feet of good holding sand. The first morning we headed ashore and marched around with the machete out and our boat poles at the ready, we saw lots of wild deer, pigs and monkeys but no dragons! After meeting the fishermen, we were adopted by 'Otis', one of the young guys and he took us on extensive hikes into the bushes to continue the search. He thought the boat pole was extremely inadequate (and probably quite funny) so immediately set out to cut us proper poking/protection sticks. Apparently, you need a 6-8 foot branch with a v-fork on the end to push at the dragons necks and noses. We ended up spotting quite a few wondering around in the brush then Otis put up some small bait fish on a string in a tree and told us to head ashore around 11:00am, at 10:45 there they were marching along the beach!

SUNDAY 24TH AUGUST
Anchored at Ranger Station on Rinca Island.
Position: South 08*39'198 East 119*42'855

After a quick dash to the local market at Labuhan Bajo on Saturday morning, to stock up on some fruit and vegies, we pulled anchor and headed out to 'Rinca' one of the two main Islands in the Komodo national park. We'd heard that the ranger station on the north coast was the best place to see the monitor lizards close up so we fought the tides and arrived in the well protected anchorage around 3pm. We headed ashore and parked at the dock, full of wooden tourist boats, then wandered precariously to the ranger huts avoiding all the wild monkeys. We found the station closes at 4pm so we'd missed out on the guided tour but the bar was open and the rangers were more than happy to show us some giant dragons that hung around outside the kitchen hut. They were very serious about us not getting too close as the komodo's are extremely unpredictable and just one bite will kill you! One of the guides stood between us with a long stick forked at the end to protect us if one decided get friendly. The ranger explained that the dragons main food sources are the big water buffalo's and wild deer, they bite them then follow for a couple of days until they die of blood poisoning and then they feast! We were certainly happy at keeping our distance but when Jimmy picked up our guide and threatened to feed him to the pack the other rangers thought it was extremely funny.

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Labuhan Bajo - Gateway to Komodo!

FRIDAY 22ND AUGUST
Position: South 08*29'304 East 119*52'433

We've been here in Labuhan Bajo on the west coast of Flores for a couple of days now and are finding it hard to get used to the hustle of a big town and the constant dust that covers us wherever we walk! We're anchored right inside the port surrounded by local fishing and charter boats that use the town as a base for the Komodo area. The view from Blue Moon is great with a busy shore line scattered with loads of little houses and an array of strange looking vessels. There's one main street running parallel to the waterfront where everything takes place including dive shops, restaurants and kiosks that sell everything you could possibly need! It's still an extremely poor area and most people are living in very basic conditions but as always have time to smile and say hello. There are quite a few backpackers here so we're back to feeling like just another group of tourists. There are some great little restaurants here where a plate of Nasi Goreng (fried rice) or Mie Goreng (fried noodles) costs around 15,000 Rupia or $1.50, A large bottle of Bintang is $2 so our drink bill usually comes out much higher than the food...Where else can six people go out for dinner and drinks and pay less than $25?!

Labuhan Bajo is another scheduled rally stop so we are supposed to check in with the port captain, however, Eli & Joern off s/v Silene had a really bad experience with them. After stamping their paperwork one of the officials started demanding 250,000 Rupia (roughly $27), It may not sound much but that's a fortune here especially as we're not supposed to pay anything. Apparently the guy got extremely angry and started shouting that he hated stupid Europeans, that they should go back to where they came from but now that they're here in Indonesia they have to do as they're told!!...Luckily Eli made a quick phone call to our rally representative who smoothed the way enough for them to grab the papers and get out quickly. I guess this means we won't be checking in as I don't think they're ready to see how an American would handle the situation....Jimmy admits it wouldn't be pretty!

Since we arrived We've been inundated with guys on 'Panga's' or Long boats coming up to the boat and trying to sell us souvenirs from Komodo, I have to admit we did crack under the pressure and ended up buying a couple of wooden dragon carvings. They're extremely persistent and couldn't figure out why I didn't want to buy one of their strings of not so great Komodo Pearls! So now we're just keen to get out to the islands to see some real dragons for ourselves, tomorrow we'll head over to the island of 'Rinca' which is supposed to be a better place than Komodo to see the big monitor Lizards and other wildlife in the wild...very exciting!! We've really enjoyed Labuhan Bajo and found it a great stop to re-stock on Fuel, Water and groceries.

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Gili Bodo.

Wednesday 20th August
Position: South 08*22'173 East 120*00'940

We have finally found our paradise island and are currently anchored off the white sandy beaches of Gili Bodo island. It was a little tricky arriving yesterday with not the best light to enter through the reef but once again with the help of Gunnar snorkeling around we found a nice little patch of sand in 15 feet of water. The coral here is the best we've seen in a long time and the water clarity is also very good, we can sit on the boat and look down at the reef and see all the colourful fish swimming around! The island is completely uninhabited except for the odd fisherman who comes by to check his nets and hang out in the bay now and then. The only other sign of life we've seen is wild monkeys wondering on the beach and digging for crabs or some kind of shell fish... they look so strange just taking a stroll on the sand and looking out to sea!
Last night and tonight we've been ashore along with Ingvil and Gunnar off S/V Helen Kate and Eli & Joern off S/V Silene to build a fire and cook some bread on a stick and baked potatoes in the coals. We're the only boats here so we can pretty much do what we like which means we end up staying late into the night burning just about all the pieces of drift wood on the beach! Tonight some fishermen came ashore to use our fire to cook a giant parrot fish for their dinner and some 'Chumi Chumi' (squid to us) which they had just caught and which they put whole on to a stick and cooked them very much like we do our bread. They gave us the squid, of which only Jimmy was delighted with, then took their fish and left...if only we could communicate with them I think it would have been a pretty interesting conversation!

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Lingeh Bay, Flores.

Current Position: South 08*16'687 East 120*36'110
We're finally getting into the rhythm of getting up at day break around 5am (with the help of the local mosque calling people to prayer)& making the most of the day with an early departure. This morning we had to snake our way back out of the reef and continue the sail ever West. We chose a shorter hop today of 27 miles which meant we arrived at midday with good light making it easier to see the surrounding reef. Lingey bay is well protected as we anchored behind a headland just off a small village. No sooner had we dropped the anchor (on a rocky bottom) then about 30 kids rowed out on canoes and attached themselves to Blue Moons life lines. It's obviously a very poor area as non of the children go to school and they were asking if we had any books, pens, shoes and clothes and not the traditional 'Candy' that usually appeals at this age. They were a lot of fun and we practiced our Indonesian on them and their English on us but after a while they got bored and slipped away to try their luck at one of the other yachts. We dropped the dingy and went for a quick snorkel on the reef and were quite impressed by the amount of fish and living coral that hasn't been destroyed by fishing with explosives!

SUNDAY AUGUST 17th: Anchored in Riung
Position: South 08*24'580 East 121*01'740
Had another great sail with 15 to 20 knots out of the North West and clear skies, we made great time and arrived off the town of Riung around 2pm with plenty of light to motor through the reef. We anchored comfortably in 25 ft of water with good holding and Eli and Joern picked us up to take a walk through town. Really interesting as many of the houses built on wooden stilts and a blend of Muslim and Catholic cultures, however today is Indonesia's national day and also a Sunday so everything was pretty deserted. This is a popular place for tourist to come and hire a local boat to take them out to the small islands to do some snorkeling in the national park.

SATURDAY AUGUST 16th: Anchored in Nagarujong Bay
Position: South 08*30'550 East 121*41'250
An early start this morning but luckily the wind filled in and we were able to have a great sail even breaking out the spinnaker a few times. There were a lot of fish traps to avoid along the coast, mostly old fuel cans weighed down on long lines, however, we did spot quite a few the size of small boats made out of bamboo...I'm glad were not having to do any night sails as these would have been impossible to see in the dark! From what we can tell they use them to create shade that attract the fish and then they have baited, hooked lines hanging underneath that they catch them on?!
We arrived at Nagarujong Bay around 3:30pm and found easy anchorage just off the black sand beach in 25ft of water, the only problem here is the bay is unprotected from the North and so we're suffering from a swell which is making it pretty rolly.

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Hiking Mnt. Kelimutu and the three lakes.

Position: South 08*38'065 East 122*18'511
Currently anchored off Sea World resort in Maumere, North Flores Is.

We arrived here yesterday morning & anchored in 20ft of black volcanic sand just off the beach from the Sea World resort. It's a great place to use as a base to do some in land travel as there are always other yachts around to keep an eye on the boat and the area seems pretty safe. As soon as we arrived quite a few guys rowed out in their dugout canoes to sell vegetables, Diesel & water, they're happy to barter the price on all & just as happy to stop for a quick chat to practice their English. We took a 30 minute walk into the small nearby village to find an ATM and buy a few vegetables at the market, as always everyone along the way stopped to wave & say hello...fascinated to see us pass by! Jimmy took both his air tanks into the dive shop at the resort to have them filled for roughly US$7 but found one of them had a pin hole leak & will have to be thrown away...that's going to be tough to replace!

Today however was a breath of fresh air (quite literally) as we left Blue Moon sitting peacefully at anchor and headed up into the mountains! We hired a car and driver for the day, along with Joern and Eli, through the resort costing 630 rupiah (US$70) and at 5am we met at reception with coffee in hand to start the three and half hour drive up to Mount Kelimutu. It's not the highest mountain on the island but it's famous for the three coloured lakes that are found at the top. No one can explain the exact reason for the different colours other than minerals in the rock but if you take out a bottle of the water it's as clear as any drinking water. We were lucky that there were no clouds today so we had a clear view of the bright lime green of one, brown of another and black of the third. During different times of the year they can change to pale blue, red and light brown. The locals have a belief that when someone dies their spirit enters one of these lakes; Green for the young, brown for the old and black for people who are bad. The scenery was fantastic with beautiful views over the surrounding mountains and a nice cool breeze to make the hiking a little easier...all this sailing and our legs have turned to jelly!!

On the drive back down the scenery got better and better with hillsides covered in shimmering rice paddy's and villages full of hanging Ikat weavings. We visited a traditional village and were invited to take a look inside the chiefs very elaborate wooden house. A local lady explained to us the ceremonies that take place there every year (all of which consist of slaughtering some kind of animal). The most interestingly seemed to be how the next chief of the village is decided. This pretty much consists of the present chiefs first born son being left in the rafters as a baby and if he cries in the first five minutes then he's worthy to eventually take over! If not then he is given to the shaman who takes him away and knocks his head against a banana tree, if he cries on the first try then he's worthy but if not until the third then he is considered stupid, the second son is then automatically pronounced chief without a question and the first son will have to leave the village...tough crowd huh!!

We had a great day and our driver was a lot of fun, we still can't belive he stayed awake the whole day but are very glad he did as some of those roads were a bit dodgy to say the least! Tomorrow we will be upping anchor again trying to stay ahead of the Sail Indonesia crowd with a short hop 30 miles west in hope of finding some clear water to snorkel and dive in.

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Tanjung Gedong, Flores Island

TUESDAY 12TH AUGUST
Position: South 08*04'660 East 122*50'718

Yesterday we had a beautiful day sail (and some motoring) from Lembata to this anchorage at Tanjung Gedong on the Eastern side of Flores Island...roughly fourty miles. Arriving around 4pm in a well protected but extremely deep bay, we had to drop the anchor about 20 feet from the beach as the bottom slopes up rather sharply - one minute we were in 250ft the next 40. Our Norwegian friends on s/v Helen Kate and s/v Silene we're already anchored and Gunnar was nice enough to snorkel in front of the boat to find a sandy spot to drop our anchor in. The bay is extremely beautiful with a rocky beach covered in palm trees, crystal clear water and a large village in the hills.
Today we went ashore to visit the village and were shown around by a lady who spoke some English and was really excited to practice it with us. She invited us into her house for Flores Coffee (very strong and very sweet) and introduced us to her family. The village itself is very basic with small wooden houses and pigs and chickens running around everywhere. The population here are mostly Catholic with some Muslim and they were really proud of the village church. It was obvious that they rarely have any tourists, other than the odd cruiser dropping in, as we had a large number of children and adults following us where ever we went...they're so friendly!
Back on the beach a group of older guys were carving out wooden canoes and they were really happy to show us their handy work. The rest of the day we spent snorkelling and relaxing on the boat with a constant influx of visiting children in canoes moving from one boat to another to try and see what was going on in these strange crafts. This evening we went ashore to build a fire ('api' in indonsian) on the beach and cook our famous 'bread on a stick' while watching the sunset. A local guy came to join us and we gave him some bread and sausages to try, he seemed to like it but turned down Jimmy's offer of some wine as he said it might make him Crazy - very honest!!
Tomorrow we plan to head further west in search of some dive sites but not sure where yet, the weather looks good but there's been no wind so it may be a day of motoring or flying the spinaker.

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Leboleba Harbour, Kawula Island.

MONDAY 11TH AUGUST,
Position in Loboleba Harbour: South 08*22'068 East 123*24'394

We had a great sail yesterday and entered the Selat Lamakera pass at 9:30am with breathtaking views of the high Volcanic islands. Our timing was a bit off as we were supposed to catch the tide in our favour but ended up arriving on the turn so had about three knots against us for a while which was okay as it can reach up to seven. Loboleba is an enclosed natural harbour overlooked buy the active 'Ile Ape' volcano and the small city of Lewoleba. We anchored in about 40ft of water along with 15 other yachts and headed ashore to the newly constructed dinghy dock (Made out of bamboo and planks of wood) to explore town. The people here are very poor but everyone is always happy with big smiles on their faces and calls of 'Hello Misses' and 'Hello Mister' everywhere we go. There was just enough time to take a quick walk through town to take and then stop off at a restaurant for a couple of Bintang Beers and fried rice and Noodle dinner. All would have been great except another cruiser came up to tell us that Blue Moon was getting a little too friendly with another boat in the anchorage!! Jimmy and Joern sped out to move us away and luckily only minor damage occurred to the other boat and none to us.

Today we walked to the traditional market about 45 mins from town through the winding back lanes with a constant stream of motorbikes beeping their horns and waving at us. We tried our hand at haggling for fresh fruit and vegetables but I'm pretty sure we're still paying four times as much as the locals...we need a little more practice with our numbers as negotiating with a calculator seems a bit strange. In the afternoon we stopped off for another meal of fried noodles (roughly around $1.50)and then back to the boat to organize fuel and water - which are both available from the guys at the dinghy dock.

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Underway to Kawula Island.

Position at local time 10:44pm - GMT+8hrs: South 09*25'775 East 123*14'600
Course: 357*T
Speed: 4.7knots

We upped anchor and left Roti Island around 8am this morning just managing to avoid the shallow coral heads that cover the anchorage. Our destination is the town of Lembata on Kawula island which is in the main chain of islands just east of Flores. We've been able to sail most of the day with wind out of the South East around 15 to 20 knots but now it's completely died off and we're having to run the engine. S/v Helen Kate, Silene, Nabob, Street Legal and Galliano are all sailing along with us and amazingly we are holding the front of the pack. We scraped Blue Moon's hull yesterday taking off about 2 inches of weed all over so we're guessing it's helping us to go faster. We had our first whale sighting in Indonesia today as we passed a huge pod of what looked like large Pilot whales, really beautiful. Jimmy has been great and has made my birthday underway really enjoyable by putting up balloons all over the boat and baking chocolate brownies. It's amazing to think that this time last year we were on our way from Bora Bora to Suwarrow in the Cook Islands....luckily the conditions are much nicer this year!!

Last night we heard from our friends on 'Nabob' who got an SMS message from their family in Sweden that there was a large earthquake on the island of Sumbawa which is just East of Flores island and very close to here.... we were extremely worried about after shocks and the chance of a tsunami but luckily we felt nothing....scary feeling being so isolated. We plan to visit the island on our way through and hope there wasn't too much damage done.

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Kupan City & Roti Island, West Timor

Current Position at Pulau Bibi Bay on Roti island: South 10*27'133 East 123*21'930
Position for last week in Kupang Harbour: South 10*09'661 East 123*34'207

We've been in Western Timor for a week now and we still haven't acclimatized to the huge cultural differences between here and Australia. Arriving in Kupang we'd timed a little wrong and had to stay out overnight to wait for day light to enter the anchorage and we were very glad we did. With over 100 yachts already there finding a spot less than 60ft deep was pretty tough....luckily we have over 300ft of chain and had no problems. The check in process was something different but once the quarantine officers had been out to the boat we were able to head ashore to Teddy's bar to explore and start all the other necessary procedures. Getting customs to come out to the boat was the tough one and then being impounded for a couple of days until things could be ironed out in Jakarta. On the whole we are really glad we joined the rally as trying to do all this on our own would have been impossible.

The rally organizers had a lot to deal with as many of the older cruisers are extremely impatient and obviously haven't had to deal with third world check-in's before, for us it was business as usual and we knew just to be patient and all would come right! Kupang is a great city and everyone came together to welcome us with festivals and dinners with the Mayor and Governors. The free day tour into the mountains was the absolute highlight, we visited the Village of 'Soe' where the Indigenous Dawan people live in traditional, beehive - like 'lopo' huts. This tribe were once head hunters and we were treated to a performance of their warrior dance. They also laid out there weaving's and carvings for us to buy and we couldn't resist a couple of wooden Beetle nut powder boxes. The second village we visited is called 'Boti', way up in the mountains and here we were given a welcome by the Raja and his people who gave us woven 'Ikat' scarfs that they weave in the village. They also treated us to a traditional lunch and to view the hair cutting ceremony which takes place once in a persons life and then their hair is never cut again. It involves slaughtering a pig and using the blood to paint the child's head then shaving off the hair with a knife... Luckily I couldn't quite see the pig slaughtering part!!

As for provisioning in Kupang pretty much everything is available, at the moment the exchange rate is roughly Rp 8,300 to Aus $1. A bottle of Bintang beer is somewhere around RP 20,000 and a meal of Naasi Goreng (fried rice) can be found for Rp 6,000. There are ATM machines all over town and by jumping on the number 6 Bemo (mini van bus) for Rp 2,000 you can ride out to the 'Mall' where they have a supermarket stocked with western food or the Indonesian equivalent. Pretty much all but red meat and fresh milk can be found there. Toilet roll is available but in very limited quantities and at quite expensive prices...they just don't use it here!! We also found it a lot of fun to visit the huge local markets to buy fresh vegetable and fruit or even to just soak in the atmosphere and practice our Indonesian with the enthusiastic locals!

Leaving Kupang was hard as we'd made many friends in our short stay and the Dinghy Boys who carry our huge dinghy up the beach for a small fee will be sorely missed. However we upped anchor two days ago and had an extremely wet sail 20nm south to 'Palau Bibi Roti' anchorage on the northern tip Of Roti island. It's a very good anchorage but a good look out has to be kept to avoid the coral heads and Bommies. Yesterday we went ashore to visit the village and had a wonderful welcome from the locals who took us to get fresh coconuts from the trees and introduce us to their families. The children followed us wherever we went and always had big smiles on their faces especially when Jimmy chased after them... they couldn't get enough. They pick and dry seaweed here and from what we could work out it is then sent on to America to sell in health food shops or something along those lines! Afterwards we went back to the Norwegian yacht 'Blue Marlin' where I was treated to a surprise birthday party (2 days early as we may all go separate ways from here) and some really wonderful gifts including a woven 'Ikat' blanket and hand made butterfly's!!...a wonderful night and Thank you to everyone.

Tomorrow we have decided to head north to Flores Island which is about 100 nautical miles to do some diving and visit the famous three lake volcano. This may change by the end of the day however as some other friends are heading south to the famous surf brake at 'nembrala Roti' which is also a very tempting idea!!...Watch this space.

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Darwin to Timor - Day 4

Position at 11:00pm Darwin time: South 10*51'410 East 125*01'077
Nautical Miles to go: 97

Today we finally got to turn the engine off and with about 10 knots of wind we hoisted up the spinnaker and started sailing with an average speed of about 3 knots. We've done our calculations and realize it will take an extra night for us to get to Kupang in the day light. The rally has warned us that it can be dangerous arriving at night due to misplaced navigation aids and local fishing boats and nets. This means that we can go slow and don't have to worry about getting in before night fall tomorrow. There are about seven other yachts with the same plan as us as we are now the back group in the fleet.....if only we had a 50ft catamaran we'd already be there!! We can't complain though as we've spent the day pretty relaxed and getting a few jobs done on the boat. In Darwin we brought a set of 54 photocopied charts for AUS$250 to take us all the way through to Thailand so I've been cutting and folding them and trying to figure out when we'll need them! Jimmy on the other hand has been trying to find space to cram the last of our Darwin supplies, the bilges are now full of diet cokes and all the cabinets are bursting but at least the boat looks 'reasonably' organized now!

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Darwin to Timor- Day 3.....Still motoring!

Position at 9:00pm Darwin time: South 11*21'014 East 126*39'499
215 nautical miles to go.

The wind still hasn't picked up and we're motoring along at 4.5 knots with main and mizzen sails up to keep us from rolling on the glassy ocean. We stopped the boat this morning so Jimmy could jump over the side to check the bottom and he found a lot of weed caught around the prop. He didn't stay in long so as not to become shark bait which was lucky as our friends on 'Antares' caught a 1.5m shark off the back of their boat this afternoon!! The good news is that we've picked up half a knot in speed since he cleaned it off so it was well worth the effort. It's now dark outside and we're getting close to some shallow shoals where a lot of boats ahead have reported seeing Indonesian fishing boats and long nets so we have to keep a really good look out even though it's so dark it will be hard to see anything. This is something we'll have to get used to as Indonesians over fish their seas and their nets can often stretch out for a couple of miles so pretty hard to avoid. They also use large bamboo fish traps that can do a lot of damage to our fiberglass hull and no lights on their canoes means we could also do a lot of damage to them.....so no sleep tonight!!

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Darwin to Timor - Day 2.

Position at 8:45pm Darwin time: South 11*47'672 East 128*26'011
Course: 285*True Speed:3.1 knots

It's been a really frustrating day today as we've been motoring for the last 24hrs, the wind is pretty much non-existent and even though we've tried lots of different sail configurations we can't get anything to work, not even the spinnaker. We're still around the back of the fleet although we did overtake a few yachts last night who were still trying to sail and not really getting anywhere. Our friends on 'Antares','Helen Kate' and 'Silene' are all close by so we can talk on the VHF radio. They're all doing a little better than us at being able to turn off their engines and sail now and then to keep the fuel consumption down. Jimmy is thinking of jumping over the side tomorrow to take a look at the hull and make sure we don't have weed caught around the propeller or rudder and maybe give it a bit of a scrub to see if that speeds us up! For now we'll keep chugging along in the hope that the wind will pick up just enough to keep the sails full. The good thing about motoring is that the batteries are fully charged and we can watch DVD's as much as we like....we're currently hooked on the series 'Lost' so two more episodes tonight!!

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Underway to Kupang, Western Timor- Day 1 of the Rally

Position at 8pm local time: South 12*14.7 East 130*.12.0
Course:285*T with 450 nautical miles to go.

Today is the big day and we are finally underway to the city of Kupang, Western Timor in Indonesia. The last three weeks have been crammed with provisioning and fixing the boat so it feels great to get back to sea where hopefully we can relax a little! The rally began at 11am giving us just enough time to run ashore for our last hot shower & to top up our water cans then get back to Bluemoon to hoist the dinghy on deck and pull the anchor. With over 100 other boats the start line just outside Fannie Bay anchorage was packed full with everyone trying to put up spinnakers and avoid running into each other! It was a beautiful sight & luckily all went smoothly even though we are now one of the last yachts in the group, with so many Catamaran's it's impossible to keep up especially as we haven't scrubbed our bottom for a while (due to the local crocodile inhabitants) so we're probably dragging a carpet underneath us!!

We had a great sail earlier with 15 knots of wind, flying the spinnaker at 5 knots but now that the sun has set the wind has died and we're motoring against the current at 2 knots. Jimmy is getting frustrated but it might not be a bad thing as it looks like a city ahead of us with all the mast lights so at least we'll avoid any close encounters being so far behind!

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Darwin....At Last!!

Position - South 12*25'742 East 130849'325
Fannie Bay, Darwin

We have finally made it to Darwin and are now very happily anchored in Fannie Bay just off the yacht club. We arrived yesterday morning around 8am after an overnight trip from Alcorro Bay on Cape don and the night before that we were anchored off Croker Island. Timing the trip from Cape Don was a pretty complicated operation as we had to make sure to catch three different currents in our favour along the way. Luckily Joern off of 's/v Silene' made some detailed calculations and we had a perfect run leaving Cape Don at 2pm which was five and a half hours before high tide in Darwin. Unfortunately the winds weren't so kind and we ended up motoring the whole way starting with 20knots against us for the first four hours and then dropping off to nothing the rest of the way. Jimmy had a bit of a panic when he noticed the engine was seriously overheating and had to take it apart to try and find the problem. We ended up removing the thermostat completely which seemed to work for a while until the temperature gauge was showing it over heating again. However, the engine didn't feel hot so luckily he decided to check the gauge itself and low and behold there was a loose connection!.....at least the engine got a full service in the process.

Anyway we're really excited to be here even though we do have to anchor a mile off the beach due to the 20ft tidal changes. We visited the Mindil Beach Market last night and ate Chinese food listening to live music while watching the sunset and today we've been doing all the fun cruiser things like checking in with customs and applying for our Indonesian Visas. We've even started doing more provisioning at the Coles and Woolworths supermarket lugging huge backpacks and armfuls of shopping onto the bus back to the yacht club....ten more runs like that and we should be ready!!

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Mullet Bay-North Gouldburn Island.

Position at 16:00 - South 11*30'887 East 133*23'578

After a great down wind sail over night last night with 15-20 knots of wind out of the East-south East we decided to pull in to the northern of the two Gouldburn Islands. The Bureau of Meteorology have put out a strong wind warning for this area so we decided to avoid the big seas, get a good nights sleep and start up again tomorrow. We anchored in Mullet bay on the western side of the island in about 20ft of water just off the long sandy beach. There is an Aboriginal community here who are supposed to be very welcoming to visitors but the effort to pump up and drop the dinghy was a little to much after a sleepless night last night. The islands are pretty flat and covered in vegetation and the only sign of inhabitants is the satellite dish sticking out above the trees just of the beach!!
Now we'll enjoy another great sunset, have some dinner and watch a movie before getting an early night. We have to start up at 6 am tomorrow morning to head 50nm along the coast to David point at the beginning of the Bowen straights.

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Wessels to Port Essington.

Our position at 18:15 - South 11*32'034 East 135*11'877

Yesterday we ended up moving roughly 45nm further south to Refuge Bay on Elcho island in the Wessel chain to get a better angle for today's trip. Jay, Jody, Jason and Loretta on 's/v Makali Kai picked us up along with Silene and the couple on 's/v Galliano' in their dinghy so that we could all stretch our legs on the long sandy beach once we'd arrived. We are now in a part of the Northern Territory called 'Arnheim Land' which is owned by the Aboriginals and to go ashore a permit is required. Here however there was a settlement but no sign of any people so everyone either played touch rugby or went for a long walk before heading back to the boat for a great nights sleep.

Today we upped anchor after listening to the Darwin net on the SSB radio around 9am and have had a very slow passage so far! We've been flying the spinnaker all day and only averaging around 3-4knots with light winds from the east. Still a beautiful day with clear sunny skies and with fresh fish for lunch we really can't complain. The sun is about to set and we've just dropped the spinnaker to replace it with the head sail for the night. The winds have started to pick up and we have 107nm to go to North Gouldburn island or 197nm to Port Essington if we decide to keep going. For now we'll watch the sunset and worry about destinations later!!

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Sunday 29th June - The Gugari Rip!!

Position at 18:00 - South 11*35'969 East 136*17'038

Today was a particularly exciting day.....We left Elizabeth Bay at 11:00am and headed out through the Malay Road pass in the The English Company Islands where we joined the convoy of 9 other boats including 'This Way up' all flying their spinnakers coming from Gove. We've been hearing about the 'Gugari Rip', known locally as 'The Hole in the wall', from our friend Jasper on board 'Antares' for as long as we can remember so that's where we were headed! The Hole in the wall is a very long narrow cut between two islands in the wessel group which is lined with large rock faces almost like a natural canal. One mistake in there and you end up plastered against the wall so we had to time our arrival perfectly with the slack high tide so we had either no current or just a little going with us. Of course as usual our timing was off and the first boats through were getting four knots of current against them at 4pm. We decided to hang around and wait a little longer but with a congestion building up we were almost pushed through by the crowd. Luckily all went well and it was a lot of fun even though we were almost run over in the process! We had about two knots of current against us and probably should have waited another hour.
Now we are anchored in Guruliya Bay on Raragala island and getting ready to head over for a celebratory BBQ on the catamaran s/v Makali Kai with all the great fish that everyone caught along the way today.

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Sat 28th June - We made it across the Gulf!!

Position at 18:00 ETC - South 11*54'327 East 136*34'052

We're currently very happily anchored in Elizabeth Bay on Cape Wilberforce just south of the Wessel islands and North West of Gove. Last night was great with the seas really calming down and the wind turning more to the South West so we were able to sail on a beam Reach (wind from the side instead of behind) and so a lot less rolly! We averaged around 5 knots and finally had no problems getting some much needed sleep. Jimmy even made popcorn and was able to watch a movie in the cockpit on his watch with out getting wet. Today was even better and our timing perfect as we sailed behind the reef and dropped the anchor just as the sun was setting. We lost Silene during the night as they raced off ahead of us and being so fast they made it in to anchor five hours ahead of us. Now we plan to get some warm food in our stomachs, watch a movie and have a lovely calm nights sleep as tomorrow is a big day..... Caroline.

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Day 2- Across the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Current Position at 19:00 EST - South 12*05'960 East 138*37'160

It's been a long day today and we've been averaging around 5 knots with 2 meter seas and roughly 15-20 knots of wind out of the South East. We're rolling around like crazy due to strange confused seas coming from two slightly different directions out of the East. Things have been flying around all over the place and we're having to wedge ourselves in just to get some sleep and trying to cook food has been very interesting. Last night was pretty eventful with a few wind changes meaning that we had to change our sail configuration each time in the pitch black which means as usual not a lot of sleep was had by either of us. We're now sailing with our head sail poled out on the port side and the main double reefed on the other but as the sun is setting it looks like we'll have to change them again to stay on course.....they joy of cruising!!

Our friends on 'Silene' are 10 miles ahead of us so we still have good radio contact although they're sailing much faster than us and will probably be well out of range in the morning. We're both pretty exhausted as it's been a while since we've done any night passages and we're completely out of practice! I think it's the first time Jimmy hasn't even been tempted to put a fishing line over the side since we've been in Australia so that's saying something!!

We still have 111 nautical miles to go but with any luck we hope to arrive in Elizabeth Bay on the Wessel islands before sunset tomorrow night. C.xx

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Day One- Underway across the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Position at 19:00 EST - South 12*32'257 East 140*48'730

We're finally underway and are 55 nautical miles out of Weipa with 15-20 knot winds and less than 3 foot seas. We pulled anchor this morning around 6:30 with clear sky's and perfect conditions so we're hoping our waiting finally paid off and it stays this way for the whole trip! We still have 243nm miles to go to the Wessel islands and making about 5-6 knots so should arrive in the next 45hrs. Our friends Eli and Joern onboard the yacht 'Silene' are sailing along side us and we're really happy as Jimmy's managed to get 'Heidi'(our wind steering unit) to sail the boat without us having to hand steer which makes for a much easier passage. Spoke to our friends on s/v Antares this morning on the SSB radio who left yesterday and it sounds like their having stronger winds and bigger seas than us so hopefully waiting the extra day helped. The Customs Coast Watch Plane flew over again today and asked us where we are going and a general check up and it sounds like we'll be getting visited by them everyday as they patrol the coast.

Well it's dark now and time for my watch the stars are really clear and beautiful, with any luck I'll be able to watch a movie in the cock pit to pass the time and make the night go by a little quicker!!....Caroline x

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Waiting in Weipa!

Position: South 12*40'182 East 141*51'168
We're currently anchored off the town of Weipa roughly 100nm south of Cape York waiting for a weather window to cross the Gulf of Carpentaria. We've been here four days now and have been able to re-stock at the Woolworth's supermarket and fill up on water. Weipa is a small bauxite mining town with a large Aboriginal community, lots of red dirt and not much more! The locals have been really friendly and hitching a ride into town hasn't been a problem and definitely beats walking in the 31*C heat. It looks like we should be able to leave tomorrow with a forecast of 20knot winds and 6-10ft seas. The Gulf can get rough really quickly (as I experienced on my last crossing) so we're being really careful to pick a good window. Not sure where we'll hit land on the other side yet, either the town of Gove or some where in the Wessel islands, we'll decide underway depending on sea conditions. Now we just need to get the dinghy lashed down on deck and get everything put away so it doesn't fly at us underway!

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